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Piano Forums at UK Piano Page, feel free to read the posts on our piano forums. If you wish to reply to a post or submit a new post you must register first, it's free.Please read the Piano Forum FAQ for more details. Also, read the piano FAQ for common questions on pianos Please don't ask us to place a value on your piano as an on site inspection is required. Contact you local piano tuner who will be more than happy to help.

I just wanted to share this with tuners out there. Recently, I was given an 1879 Challenger & Co. upright, arguably a cottage piano with pan legs. It was so terribly out of tune, and a major third below pitch. The tuning showed no sign of being tuned properly in the past, there was no detectable scale, and unison were terrible, so I assumed that the wrestpins must be very loose.

Being oblong pins, I started tuning with a T-hanmer, but found it difficult to even turn the pins, so I torque-tested some of them, and was amazed to find that many of them were over 40 inchpounds, which is tighter than some new pianos, not bad for a piano that is 138 years old!

Tuning it was a long and back-breaking job for me, because of the angles, using a T-hammer on a piano that is too tall to sit down for tuning. I will try again with an old double-ended crank, but even the first rough tuning has transformed it, and although I am unlikely to risk raising the pitch in one go, the tone is surprisingly sweet.